AMHERST, N.Y. - The Division 2 Athletics Directors Association (D2 ADA) has appointed Daemen University Vice President for Athletics Traci Murphy to serve as the organizations 1st Vice President for the 2024-25 membership year. The appointment was one of several announced today by the organization.
Dr. Michael McFarland, director of athletics at Bloomsburg University, was selected President for the 2024-25 membership year. McFarland takes over for Past President, Kirby Garry, director of athletics at Cal State Monterey Bay. Serving alongside McFarland will be Murphy, 2nd Vice President Jenn Bell of Converse University and 3rd Vice President Clyde Doughty of Bowie State University. Murphy has served on the D2 ADA Board of Directors the past three years.
The D2 ADA is the first organization of its kind to provide educational and networking opportunities; enhancement of acceptable operating standards and ethics; and establishment of the overall prestige and understanding of the profession of Division II athletics directors. The D2 ADA is administered by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), which is in its 60th year.
The 2024-25 academic year will mark Murphy's seventh leading the Division of Athletics at Daemen
. During her tenure, Daemen teams have combined for 37 top-three finishes in their respective conference standings while raising nine conference championship banners to the Lumsden Gymnasium rafters. Additionally, the Wildcats have earned a combined 15 berths to their respective NCAA Division II Championship tournaments, winning a total of four East Region championships along the way. The Wildcats' achievements have not been exclusively relegated to the fields of competition under Murphy's leadership.
In the classroom, Daemen student-athletes have posted a collective grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher in each semester of Murphy's tenure, including a 3.41 during the Spring 2020 semester - the highest such GPA since the tracking of academic stats became commonplace several years prior. In December of 2021 she was selected to represent the East Coast Conference on the inaugural NCAA Division II Implementation Committee, which recently reviewed the division's rules and policies and
made recommendations to ensure that changes are consistent with the principles agreed upon in the new Division II constitution.